Desert Voices
by Bag Of Badgers
Summary: A piece about the beginnings of civilization, and what that leaves behind. Heavily inspired by Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods".


Out in the desert, there are voices.

They whisper to the parched traveller, _come to me i will give you land glory identity wealth anything you ask i will grant only come to me to me please please me me me me i i i_

These voices are the first of them.

They were three once, Jericho and Ain Ghazal and Çatal Hüyük, and they never truly see each other. Ain Ghazal sculpts little figures of plaster for his people, and Jericho watches her walls, the first any had seen, and Çatal Hüyük runs from rooftop to rooftop, leaving bull skulls in the shrines.

They fade with the desert, people scattering and moving away, leaving them to wither to the voices that dream of return, glory, anything, only please follow them,_ follow me, me me me me please, i remember figures of women and plaster-covered skulls and eyes outlined in bitumen i remember please please_

Next, the cities rise.

Far to the south, twins Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro build cities of the Indus mud; and the Mesopotamian valley grows with people who heard the little whispering voices that had got their chance _listen to me build here listen to me listen listen i will bring you fame and greatness only me me me_

Proud Uruk raises her chin and Ur raises ziggurats, Lagash and Kish building walls, and Uruk begins to become the very strongest, leaving the others to join her or fade back to the voices, and none could stand being the voices again.

They would meet with Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, on little single-masted boats, and speak of trade and never the rising rivers and advancing northerners, because to do so would be to go back to the voices on the wind, back to what they had been but worse worse worse because they would _know_ that they had been something else before, something great—

But Sumer falls to Akkadia, who keeps her gods and leaves her to the desert voices.

_i remember ziggurats that touched the sky and lyres with bulls marble women and great cities i remember follow me please please i can't forge _

And the twins of the Indus sink again to its waters.

_irrigation and dancing statues and boats as far as the ends of the earth please come back please listen to me_

Akkadia falls to Babylon, leaving only the voice that fades away in the land between two rivers, and then Babylon—

Babylon lives, livelive_lives_ through name changes because the voices out in the desert remind her again and again that she has two choices: live and live and change her name culture clothes gods everything, or become a voice like Assyria's faint cries of _lamassu and chariots, feared by all, please come back i can make you strong_ (Babylon outlived him too).

The new arise and fall, Egypt hanging on through her three kingdoms; Cycladians becoming Minoans becoming Myceneans before falling to whispers in the caves of Crete, speaking of labyrinthine palaces and dolphins on the walls, lyre players and golden masks; Phoenicia rising higher and higher; and Greece coming together from many city-states who can join or go back to that call in the grotto of _columns and vases, please me me me me_.

And who is to say this stops?

Deep in the Black Forest, there is the voice of a child crying _golden bulls and double-headed eagles, please come back i can be strong again_; and the New World is full of voices shouting _traitor, traitor, come back i will rise i will have my people that you took with steel_ and _please remember please come back we built we built please come back to me_; and Byzantium's voice is still in her streets _follow me follow me i can bring back the statue from alexander and the icons of mary i can i can please please listen me me me me_

Because the worst thing for a nation is not never-having-been.

It is knowing that you once were, and that the people in the desert cannot hear your voice.

* * *

Jericho, Ain Ghazal, and Çatal Hüyük are generally regarded as the first towns. Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro are the largest cities of the Indus River Valley civilization, and Sumer was a conglomeration of powerful Mesopotamian city-states. Akkadia was a relatively short-lived civilization that took over Sumer, and then fell to the Babylonians (in my head, Babylon was such a trooper that she managed to hang on and become Iran, or at least raise her.) Assyria took _them_ over and then fell to the Babylonians again. At some point, the Egyptians came along.

The Cycladians lived in the Cycladian islands in the Aegean, and the Minoans and Myceneans lived on Crete, and the Phoenicians were a powerful civilization in the Middle East that invented the alphabet and purple dye.

The third and second-to-last nations mentioned are Holy Rome and the First Nation tribes that were completely wiped out after European contact or dissolved on their own because of drought or invasions.


End file.
